In 2025, fire departments serving Chassell responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $350K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
86 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.5M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 10 | — | |
| 2022 | 21 | — | |
| 2023 | 12 | -42.9% | |
| 2024 | 25 | +108.3% | |
| 2025 | 18 | -28.0% |
* Well below Chassell's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 6 building fires Chassell departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 28 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 4 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Other | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 17.9% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Chassell mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 4 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Match | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 3.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chassell departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chassell sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,357 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,625 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,127 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 3.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 388 | 15.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | 148 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 134 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 119 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 106 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 97 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 62 | 45.9 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Chassell. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Chassell.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.